William Evans Bennett

by Edmund Starling, 1886

WILLIAM EVANS BENNETT.

The subject of this brief sketch was born on the
twenty-seventh day of January, 1814, on the place he spent his life. He was
a son of Evans Bennett and Elizabeth Morris, natives of Virginia and North
Carolina. Mr. Bennett was educated at the country schools of his
neighborhood. The school house where he was taught was a rude log hut with
one door and a large dirt chimney. I have often heard him say that when his
teacher, for any cause, proposed to apply the rod to him, his first object
was to get between him and the chimney, and then make his escape by that
outlet, which was almost as easy as going out of the door. Mr. Bennett was
all his life a farmer, and, by close application and hard work, possessed
himself of a competency sufficient to raise a large family of children and
keep him and those who lived with him in his old age in comfortable
circumstances. For very many years he served his county as magistrate and
was one of the most highly respected upon the bench. He was a plain,
unassuming, Christian gentleman, full of life and humor, honest and
temperate in all things. He bore no man malice; was a kind, congenial
neighbor, and as greatly respected as any man who has lived in the county.
Mr. Bennett died several years since, leaving a large family of children.